OLAB 2050 - Culture in Global Cities Award

‘Culture in Global Cities' is a course which is designed to place students in a professional context which focuses on culture and creativity and its impact on cities. As future leaders and managers within the cultural field, students will have to embrace the complexity of the links between culture, equitable urban development and public policy.

The course takes the form of an innovative competition and real-life case study. Students in small groups will devise a city-wide cultural programme that responds to the city’s specific challenges and assets, its unique social and economic context, its environment, history and heritage.

Each group will work on a written application and will present their work in front of a jury at the end of the semester. This year, the course is developed in partnership with the World Cities Culture Forum, a leading global network with 45+ creative cities in six continents.

By 2050, approximately 70% of the world's population will live in cities. Cities are centres of trade, cultural exchange and innovation. Culture is a basic human right, but there are inequalities to access and participation.

The World Cities Culture Forum would like to explore the establishment of a World Cities Culture Day: a global project to encourage participation and bring visibility to existing cultural opportunities across cities around the world. The programme needs to have global reach and local impact and needs to reflect and respond to each city's cultural policies. The programme is currently in a research stage.

Building on the impact and the lessons learned from similar city-wide initiatives (e.g. World Heritage Day, European Museum Night, Nuit Blanche, Open Gardens, Fête de la Musique…), each group will create their own proposal for a World Cities Culture Day, in the city of their choice.

As part of this, we want your cultural programme to:

• Be led by a team of experts capable of curating a programme with an impactful theme, branding and line-up of events, financially sustainable, globally resonant and locally relevant.
• Celebrate diverse voices and the artistic history and offer of your city.
• Create connections between central hubs and peripheries through partnerships with large and small arts organisations, museums, cultural centres, universities, schools, charities, community groups and residents.
• Make the most of cross-sector collaborations to address the future of arts & culture: i.e. entertainment sector and creative industries, digital technologies, gastronomy, gaming, etc.
• Impact your chosen location(s) positively, creating lasting opportunities, connections, profile, reputation for the local creative ecosystem.
• Foster a dialogue with other global cities through co-production, touring and legacy projects.

The award will go to the team that can best demonstrate how their ‘Culture Day’ captures the world’s imagination; celebrates the city’s cultural offer; encourages access & participation; creates local pride and opportunities; engages a wide and diverse audience; is original, thoughtful and exciting.

The winning team will have the chance to subsequently present and discuss their work with Laia Gasch, Director of the World Cities Culture Forum. Their written application will be reviewed and considered by the team currently working on the World Cities Culture Day as part of the R&D phase.

The competition's guidelines are detailed below.

The course will include 6 classes focusing on key topics to give students the tools and knowledge needed for their written application and oral presentation:

• Introduction (context, governance frameworks, project guidelines,) (2) Communication & Strategic Partnerships, (3) Programming & Audiences, (4) Fundraising & Impact, (5) Sponsorship Pitch and (6) Public Speaking.

Each session will include a keynote from a Guest Speaker.

Each Team will work collaboratively to put together an application, following this framework:

1/ One written application of 5,000 words / 10 pages max. (not counting graphs or images)

● Benchmarking a World Cities Culture Day: research similar programmes including reach, impact and format. Define the need for a Global Culture Day against existing initiatives.

● Identifying key partners and stakeholders and proposing a model for a global + local governance shared by all participating cities (decision-making process, inaugural theme).

● Introducing the city, its challenges/opportunities.

● Designing a 24-hour creative programme celebrating the city’s cultural offer with clear goals, selection criteria, narrative and a timeline.

● Proposing a realistic fundraising plan (income) and budget breakdown (expenditure) for the project (total costs = $1 million ) as well as a case study of one sponsor pitch.

● Considering the programme's target audience and communication campaign: how the World Cities Culture Day will engage harder to reach audiences, address cultural divides and raise awareness about a wider access to cultural initiatives?

The application should include tables, maps, illustrations and images (or other mediums), as well as possible interviews and an official word count and a bibliography.

2/ One oral presentation in front of a professional jury, focusing on your creative programme, impact, outreach and engagement strategies.

None

Each workshop is a two-hour class on one larger theme which will give students essential tools and professional knowledge to prepare their written application and final oral presentation for the award. For each workshop, relevant professionals will be invited to speak. Following this, each group will have one or two follow up sessions with the teacher.

There will be 5 to 6 teams, each working on one city

Within each Team, students are asked to choose a role:

● 1 Project Coordinator/Producer, to coordinate the work of the group in a timely manner and produce all the technical documentation (timeline, risk assessment, budget, bibliography).

● 1 or 2 Programming Managers, to focus on the creative programme specific to each city.

● 1 Fundraising Manager, leading the fundraising strategy and partnerships.

● 1 Communications Manager, leading the branding, audience and engagement strategy.

Please note that we want you to have a given role within your Team but expect all of you to work together and collaboratively on all aspects of your application. Each Team will put together an application, following this timeline:

1/ One written application of maximum 5,000 words or 10 pages

2/ One oral presentation in front of a professional jury at the occasion of the ‘Culture in Global Cities' Award. The name of the jury members will be announced after the application submission.

The final grade will be an average between the written application and the oral presentation.

No preparation is necessary ahead of the course, but team members are expected to work individually and collaboratively to prepare their written application and oral presentation on an ongoing basis, with care, commitment and professionalism.